Knowing is Seeing
I have found it interesting over the years, to consider how visual information connects with people. This is a typographic experiment of mine from YEARS ago made by layering parts of letter forms on acetate and running it over an old school projector. I was interested in how we add to what we see. And how much does what we see influence what we know?
Recently I returned to the idea as I have been reading Koestler's 'The Act of Creation'. Koestler argues that we bring knowledge to what we see: we do not merely gain knowledge by seeing.
Using the example of a coin: our retina image of a coin is, if not viewed overhead, is a squashed sort of oval. Our knowledge of a coin however, is that it is round. Try holding up your hands in front of your face – one hand closer, the other further away. Do you think that your hands are different sizes? The retina image in your eye would say that they in fact were – the closer hand being larger. But we know that our hands are (for all intents and purposes) the same size. And we bring that knowledge to what we see.
Those illustrations are on a very literal/functional sort of level, but I think it is a fine argument for those who communicate, to have a comprehensive understanding of their audience and what they really see. What about their context causes them to see things in a particular way? We stand a better chance at connecting with people if we have a fair idea of their context and culture, and the knowledge they bring to what they see.
